If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.
Anton ChekhovRead
In nature a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with human beings it is the other way round: a lovely butterfly turns into a repulsive caterpillar.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Chekhov contrasts the beauty and transformation in nature with the moral decline of humans.
In this quote, Anton Chekhov uses the metaphor of a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly to illustrate the natural beauty and positive transformation that occurs in nature, whereas he contrasts this with the idea that humans, who may appear lovely and admirable, can regress into negative and repulsive behaviors. This statement invites reflection on the nature of humanity and the potential for moral deterioration despite outward appearances.
Themes
NatureTransformationHuman BehaviorBeautyMetaphor
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a discussion on personal growth and transformation.
More from Anton Chekhov
All quotes βThere are still many more days of failure ahead, whole seasons of failure, things will go terribly wrong, you will have huge disappointments , but you have to prepare for that, you have to expect it and be resolute and follow your own path.
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To a chemist, nothing on earth is unclean. A writer must be as objective as a chemist; he must abandon the subjective line; he must know that dungheaps play a very respectable part in a landscape, and that evil passions are as inherent in life as good ones.
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When you want to touch the reader's heart, try to be colder. It gives their grief as it were, a background, against which it stands out in greater relief.
Anton ChekhovRead
Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards, a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?
Anton ChekhovRead
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